THE dreaded combination of an inclement weather forecast and an unpopular par event did not deter a good number of competitors vying for the Jens Party Pack on Saturday at the Blue Lake Golf Club.
Close to 100 starters took to the course and it is a compliment to head greenskeeper Daniel Christian, together with his apprentice Truman and a hardy bunch of volunteers the course is presenting in excellent condition and conducive to good stroke play.
Putting that to the best example was overall winner Jake Turner who took out the event with +3 thanks to a blistering back nine of +5.
Turner was off to the best possible start with a par on the first for a plus, but quickly gave that back on the next hole.
His struggles continued and while he scrambled halved holes, he turned with a -2 and no aspirations of a grade win, much less an outright victory.
A par on the difficult 11th hole gave him one back and into the game and he was then a model of consistency, reeling off plus-holes over the 13th, 14th and 15th, then finishing with a pair of plusses to finish +3 at the end.
In A Grade Bryce Smith sat alone on top of the leaderboard for quite some time, watching contenders fall by the wayside.
There was only one afternoon starter who managed to pip him, but the single figure golfer still managed to put on an awesome display and fully warranted the grade win.
Smith had a stunning 32 off the stick on the front nine, with not a single bogey and birdies on the third, fourth and seventh for +3 at the halfway mark.
It would have to rate as one of his best nine holes of golf and while he eventually gave one back on the inward nine with a 36 off the stick it was a superb round in trying conditions.
A count-back was needed to decide second place, with Greg Cooper and Trevor Little fighting over who would collect the prize.
Cooper posted a good score early, turning around a below-average -3 on the front into a +1 total thanks to a 36 on the back nine and +4.
He reeled off five consecutive pars on the way in to go with a birdie on the 12th hole.
It is hard to give a golfer the calibre of Cooper a head start, but that is what Little had to do in terms of handicap, playing off two he has to give him an eight-stroke advantage.
But Little, to his credit, tried hard, his inconsistency costing him in the end with four birdies being negated by four wipes.
B Grade also saw some improved scoring over the back nine and winner Dane Handreck certainly did that.
A couple of double-bogeys and a wipe on the front nine were quickly dispelled with a trio of pars to open the back nine and see him back in credit.
A par on the 16th hole saw him challenging for the outright win, but he was disappointed to not score on the relatively easy par 5 17th, eventually finishing +1 which was good enough for the win.
A three-way count-back was needed to decide the minor placings, with Colin Stratford, David Lovie and David Adkins all finishing -1.
Stratford eventually prevailed thanks to a solid inward nine of +1 and not dropping a shot.
The battle of the David’s went down to the wire, both having exactly the same scoring over nine, then the last six, then individual holes.
The decision finally fell Lovie’s way over his playing partner due, in his words, to “being the nicer guy”.
There was plenty of ups and downs for C Grade winner Tony Morandin in his round, either picking up or scoring well with pars.
A -1 on the front was matched with a +1 on the back, but he showed all his experience to know anything square or better was going to be hard to catch in par golf.
Frank Pinneri also relied on his experience to snatch second place thanks to a +1 back nine.
Reeling off four plusses he almost caught Morandin, but a halved last hole let Morandin off the hook.
Joe Gallagher took the last prize with splits of -2 and 0.
Place getters included the unlucky Marc Dalton.
Playing off one, it was a case of what might have been and after scrubbing the 10th hole, he Dalton needed only 28 more strokes to complete the back nine which included three birdies and five pars.
Also taking home a ball prize was Stephen Easterbrook, Adkins, Callum Harvey, Simon Perryman, Jake Matthews, Stephen Smith, James Roughana, Stephen Von Duve and Michael Johnston.
Chris Hoggan lit up his round with an eagle on the 17th hole and the pro shot on the 16th, with Colin Tester taking out the other pro shot on the fifth.
Nearest to pins were won by Tyson Ploenges in A Grade, Von Duve in B Grade and Gallagher in C Grade.
